80m; U.S.
Director: Peter Miller
Synopsis (IMDB): The story of two Italian immigrant radicals who were executed in 1927 offers insights into present-day issues of civil liberties and the rights of immigrants.
Author Archives: Metro Council
Salesman (1969)
91m; U.S.
Director: David and Albert Maysles
Synopsis: This landmark documentary follows four Boston bible salesmen as they struggle to make a living in the cutthroat world of door-to-door sales. The film follows the salesmen as they wheedle, connive and cajole their way into homes and wallets. As the pressure of the job bears down, the film reveals the dark underside of the American Dream.
Sangre (2005)
90m; Mexico
Director: Amat Escalante
Cast: Cirilo Recio Dávila, Claudia Orozco and Martha Preciado
Synopsis (IMDB): Diego’s job is counting people as they enter a large government building. After work, he and his wife Blanca lie on the couch, watch soap operas, or make love on the kitchen table. Their relationship is based on having sex, watching TV, and fighting, until one day their routine is interrupted. Karina, Diego’s daughter from a previous marriage, arrives in search of her father’s love, but Blanca refuses to accept her. Diego finds himself caught between an extremely jealous wife and a daughter in desperate need of guidance. An astonishing climax will lead Diego to a total loss of control.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
89m; U.K.
Director: Karel Reisz
Cast: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field and Rachel Roberts
Synopsis (IMDB): Arthur, one of Britain’s angry young men of the 1960s, is a hardworking factory worker who slaves all week at his mindless job for his modest wages. Come Saturday night, he’s off to the pub for a loud and rowdy beer session. With him is Brenda, his girlfriend of the moment. Married to a fellow worker, she is nonetheless captivated by his rugged good looks and his devil-may-care attitude. Soon a new love interest Doreen enters and a week later, Brenda announces she’s pregnant. She tells Arthur she needs money for an abortion, and Arthur promises to pay for it. By this time, his relationship with Doreen has ripened and Brenda, hearing of it, confronts him. He denies everything, but it’s obvious that their affair is all but over.
Saturday’s Children (1940)
102m; U.S.
Director: Vincent Sherman
Cast: John Garfield, Anne Shirley and Claude Rains
Synopsis (IMDB): Pretty Bobby Halevy loves Rims Rosson, a dreamer and inventor without much going for him. Rims has a scheme of going to Manila to turn hemp into silk and become rich. But when one of her family talks Bobby into tricking Rims into marriage, the real world comes crashing down on the couple
The Scar (1976)
112m; Poland
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Cast: Franciszek Pieczka, Mariusz Dmochowski and Jerzy Stuhr
Synopsis (IMDB): 1970. After discussions and dishonest negotiations, a decision is taken as to where a large new chemical factory is to be built and Bednarz, an honest Party man, is put in charge of the construction. He used to live in the small town where the factory is to be built, his wife used to be a Party activist there, and he has unpleasant memories of it. But he sets to the task in the belief that he will build a place where people will live and work well. His intentions and convictions, however, conflict with those of the townspeople who are primarily concerned with their short-term needs. Disillusioned, Bednarz gives up his post.
The Scavengers (2007)
69m; Turkey
Director: Karahber
Synopsis: Kurdish migrants collect paper to sell for recycling to survive.
Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags (2009)
75m; U.S.
Director: Marc Levin
Synopsis: Schmatta documents the current post-crash economy. We hear from freshly unemployed workers who put on a brave face, preserve their humour and try to make sense of the changing landscape. The shops stemming off Seventh Avenue that once hummed with sewing machines are being converted for upscale renters. If this gargantuan industry can be reduced to such a fraction, what does it mean for the rest of us?
Land of Destiny (2010)
78m; U.S.
Director: Brett Story
Synopsis: A hard-working petrochemical town is rocked by revelations that its workers suffer an epidemic of cancers. But even more terrifying is the looming spectre of deindustrialization and joblessness. In the rich fabric of the city’s landscape – rows of boarded storefronts, the bright sprawl of petrochemical plants and the swollen rooms of hospital wards and crowded bars – one finds a microcosm of the 21st century. Tattooed men serving fries, basement musicians, boilermakers and volunteer firemen, heartbroken widows and an optimistic mayor – the lives of a diverse medley of characters intersect to reveal the dramas and contradictions of an industrial town out of sync with a post-industrial world. As the dystopian architecture of the petrochemical plants, squatted like crushed space stations just meters away from homes and schoolyards, give way to the spaces that make this city a community, we begin to see what it is that everyone seems so afraid to lose. A portrait of a working-class city in paralysis and a mediation on work and place in the modern economy, Land of Destiny offers a poignant and universal story about work, community, and struggle in an era of globalization.
Contact: http://www.bunburyfilms.com/films/trailer/doc/lod.html
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